I have done loads of experimentation on one of my sites to improve its serps and found some unusual results which leads me to ask are old links and its anchor text king? Here are some of the experiments I did: Keyword Phrase I changed the entire site to change optimisation from keyword phrase one to keyword phrase two. I changed the onpage stuff as well as all the anchor texts I could. I did this because phrase two gets heaps more searches. The result was that my serps on phrase two improved but there was no change on phrase one which stayed in exactly the same spot in serps even though I de-optimised the page for it. Density - I change the density of my keyword phrase in a few attempts from 2% right up to 12% and found no change in serps. Prominence - I change the site to get the prominence of the keyword phrase up to 99.6% and found no change in serps. Proximity - I alway make sure my keyword phrase is in the exact order I want it but found sites that outrank me in serps don't even have that. PR - My site is PR 3 and has more links than most of the sites that outrank me for keyword phrase 2. Domain Age - My site is one year old and most ahead of my are between 3 to 5 years which gives them a big advantage. Title - I have used just the keyword phrase in the title as well as stacked it with variations and found no difference. So despite all my experimentation my site still ranks high in 2nd place for the original keyword phrase one which I started with and even though I have completely set it for a new keyword phrase which had some improvement. So can I conclude from this that google likes old links and anchor texts more than new ones?
Thats a fact ! G does like old links more then new ones.. Ive done exactly same thing like 2 years ago on one of my sites and Ive never lost positions on my old kw's. In fact, on my new version there are NO keywords on which im ranking. Only around 100 of old bl's. Old links with well written anchor text is one of the kings I'd say
You may have "de-optimised " your onpage seo, but I'm sure you still have links with the old anchor text you were targeting.
How long ago did you make these changes? If it is less than 6 -9 months ago, I don't think you can draw any specific conclusions. IMO, Google delays SEO based changes and I believe it is intentional. G knows that if a person could see the immediate effect of a change, they could easily conclude what works and what doesn't. It then would not take long before everyone knew how to scam G. I think there is enough general evidence around to suggest that site age, link text, and link age are important factors. That's really common knowledge. But generally, if you are looking to improve your position in SERPs, I would suggest that you just focus on building the best site that you can. Everything else will fall in place if you do.
I'm thinking like longcall, wondering how long you waited before coming to your conclusions. I believe any changes in current links could take quite awhile before be processed thoroughly.
I have waited about 4 months before making any conclusions as it has me stumped as why I still ranked tops for keyword phrases I deoptimised my page for.